3rd person killed in post Paris attack police raid identified

A man who blew himself up during a French police raid days after November’s deadly Paris attacks — who police said was planning a separate, imminent attack in Paris — has been identified as a 25-year-old Belgian-Moroccan, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

CNN

January 14, 2016 - 12:23 pm

Members of French special RAID forces gather on the scene in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 18, 2015 to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Forensic experts enter a building as they work on the scene in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 19, 2015 the day after a police raid to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

A member of French judicial police and a French plainclothes policeman walk outside a building in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 19, 2015 the day after a police raid to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

A view shows impacts around windows on the facade of the apartment raided by French Police special forces earlier in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 18, 2015 during an operation to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

An armed French policeman secures the scene at the raid zone in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 18, 2015 to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

A man who blew himself up during a French police raid days after November’s deadly Paris attacks — who police said was planning a separate, imminent attack in Paris — has been identified as a 25-year-old Belgian-Moroccan, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

Chakib Akrouh detonated explosives on himself in the early morning November 18 police raid on the apartment in Saint-Denis, the office said, citing DNA collected from the scene.

To identify Akrouh, investigators matched DNA found at the scene to Akrouh’s mother, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

News of Akrouh’s identification came a week after a senior Belgian counterterrorism official said that two men still on the loose had a more senior role in the Paris attacks than Abaaoud, and gave orders to the Paris attackers in calls from Belgium’s capital, Brussels.

Those men, whose real names haven’t been publicly released, used the false names Soufiane Kayal and Samir Bouzid, with fake identity cards claiming that they were Belgian nationals, Belgian authorities have said.

Belgian investigators released surveillance images of those men in December. Belgian authorities said the men wired 750 euros ($816) to Ait Boulahcen from a Brussels store on November 17, the day before the Saint-Denis raid.

Police also are looking for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Belgian-born French national who authorities believe played a role in the Paris attacks but went to Belgium afterward.

On Tuesday, CNN affiliate BFMTV broadcast surveillance footage of Abdeslam at a gas station in northern France on the morning after the attacks.

A senior European counterterrorism official told CNN last month that the trail for Abdeslam had gone cold.